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Trusted partners
The future of HR as a certified profession is reflected in AHRI Fellow Erica Gallagher’s
role and status at the Public Trustee of Queensland.
BY STEVE PACKER
The Public Trustee of Queensland
celebrated its centenar y last year. It was
also a year in which Erica Gallagher
joined the organisation as its senior director,
HR, marketing and communications; Peter
Carne returned as the Public Trustee and CEO
after two years away; and the organisation
launched a strategy to bring about major change
in its workplace culture.
Going through such major change is a
daunting task for any organisation. But for
a government body steeped in tradition and
legislative dictates, with its array of complex
services, undergoing constant public scrutiny, it
is doubly so.
But Gallagher is upbeat. Asked if leading the
process is the biggest challenge in her 30 -year
career in private, public and not-for-profit HR,
she says: “No. It’s a different challenge. Each
organisation comes with its own challenges.”
Central to her optimism and resolve is her
boss’s attitude to what needs to be done – and
HR’s role in it.
“Peter is visionary in his direction for
innovation and culture change, and he’s very
focused on the workforce,” she says.
After Carne became the new CEO,
Gallagher’s role was elevated to the C -suite.
“I asked him why he thought that was
necessary and he said, ‘First and foremost,
people are integral to any strategy, and HR
is integral to people. Secondly, business can’t
happen without people. A nd third, we need
to get the right people in the right positions to
deliver on strategy.’
“He sees HR as a credible and trusted
business partner.”
Leadership elevation
In this contex t, Gallagher is in the process
of gaining AHRI certification via the
Senior L eaders Pathway, using the employee
engagement aspect of the culture change as her
case study.
She is also encouraging the HR contingent
in her team of 30 staff – two managers and 21
other practitioners – to undertake certification.
In a 16-month period before she moved from
Western Australia to Queensland in January
2016, Gallagher was AHRI’s WA state president
and a strong advocate for the introduction of
certification. HR Monthly will be following
Erica and her team’s certification jou rneys in the
coming months.
“The elevation of HR to CEO reporting and
being part of the executive is the future of any
organisation. Not just the future of HR,” she
says. “So you have to ask, how do the next
generation of HR people come up into those
leadership roles? It’s through professionalism
and certification.”
She recommends that HR practitioners
become certified as soon as they can.
“Going back 30 years, you had to earn your
stripes. Certification gives you one of the stripes
straight away.”
Gallagher also asked Carne why he thought
certification was important.
“He said it ensures that HR staff are
up-to-date with their learning and it revitalises
their interest in seeking to upscale and improve
their skills and expertise. And for him, it means
he’ll have an assurance that he has highly skilled
individuals in HR practice.”
The beautiful workforce
The Public Trustee’s services to Queenslanders
include trust administration, finance,
accounting, property auctioning and
management, IT, wills, document making and
deceased estates.
“ With wills alone, we write about 25,000 a
year,” says Gallagher.
In his online introduction: ‘Welcome from the
Public Trustee of Queensland’, Carne says: “My
belief is that the greatest strength of the Public
Trustee is our staff. They are passionate about
making a difference and are dedicated to serving
the Queensland community across 16 regional
offices. They are also strongly committed to
providing a high degree of professionalism
through our accessible and cost-effective
services.”
If that sounds like so much puff, Gallagher
“Elevating HR
to report to the
CEO and be part
of the executive
will increasingly
become routine
for organisations
in the future.”
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